The Return to Hogwarts

Since the details of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Monday afternoon were widely circulated, for the next few days, there was only one topic of conversation inside and outside the castle: Amosta Blaine.

According to Ravenclaw's Cho Chang, during dinner that day, after Professor Flitwick heard Professor Blaine demonstrate the levitation charm, he stormed into Professor Blaine's office without saying a word and stayed there for a full four hours before coming out.

Fred and George confirmed the reliability of the news. It was a little after 1 a.m. when they were adventuring in the castle. As they passed the third floor, they happened to see Professor Flitwick dragging his tired body and panting as he left Professor Blaine's office, a satisfied smile still on his rosy cheeks.

"Sa!"

Ron stood on the sofa in the lounge, controlling the goose feather he had pulled from the cushion, letting out strange growls.

"Let me show you my 'Object Control Spell'!"

As he spoke, he rapidly shook his repaired wand, just like Professor Blaine had done that day, pointing it straight to the sky. Then, everyone nearby saw the feather floating above Ron's head slowly climb the ceiling at a speed barely faster than a snail, finally disappearing into the brilliant candlelight.

Harry, who was sitting to the side holding the book Ron had given him during the Christmas holidays, "Flying with the Cannons," laughed so hard he burped when he saw this.

Ever since Professor Blaine repaired Ron's wand in Defense Against the Dark Arts class and even gave him his first bonus of the semester, Ron completely forgot about Professor Blaine's displeasure at monitoring all the young wizards with his wondrous alchemical tools and became his loyal fan.

To be honest, Ron has done the same stupid things many times in the castle. Malfoy once practiced the Levitation Charm on a wooden stick during Transfiguration class, hoping it would fly over and pierce Harry's eye. As a result, he was deducted twenty points by an angry Professor McGonagall.

It must be said that Professor Blaine's wand was incredibly cool in class; even Harry himself secretly practiced it in his dormitory when no one was around.

"If I could master Professor Blaine's technique!"

Ron jumped off the sofa cushion, stared at the chandelier overhead, and murmured in a dreamlike tone.

"Hmph, let's see who dares to look down on me again. I'll first prick Percy's ass a thousand times with a feather, and then I'll poke two big holes in Malfoy's face."

“If you really want to do all this, Ron—”

Hermione, who was scribbling and drawing on the table, said impatiently.

"Then you should sit down and seriously study the spell model of this 'Object Manipulation Spell' with me, instead of just gesturing wildly!"

"Oh, how annoying, why can't you just tell me what I can do, Hermione."

Ron, whose dreams were shattered by reality, immediately wore a disgruntled expression.

"You're in trouble, Hermione!"

Harry blinked his emerald eyes and asked with a grin. Without the Chamber of Secrets attack and Lockhart, he seemed happy every day.

"It was more difficult than ever, Harry. You can't even imagine what Professor Blaine did with the Levitation Charm. Honestly, I even thought it was homework for the Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts class!"

Harry and Ron exchanged bewildered glances. This was the first time they had ever heard Hermione express such clear dissatisfaction with homework from any subject since they had known her.

"It took me four whole days to figure out that the 'Kanri' in 'Kanridi Leviosa' comes from the ancient runes, 'Kuriradkanri'—the Titan's Blade. In this spell, it means 'sharp' and 'indestructible'!"

"In ancient times, like Nivenko, but wasn't that a course that only started in the third grade?"

Neville, who had been eavesdropping, turned around and said uneasily.

"Well said, Neville!"

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms, but her gaze lingered on the parchment spread out on the table, fixed on the haphazardly drawn spell model.

"The sound 'm' is a circular structure in the Levitation Charm's spell model. Its purpose is to weaken the spell's effect by restricting the input of magic power. Therefore, Professor Blaine removed it!"

"That is to say!"

Ron's eyes lit up as he moved closer to Hermione, pretending he could understand the complex spell model on the paper.

"You can use the 'Object Manipulation Spell' now?!"

"It's not that simple, Ron!"

Hermione banged her wand on the table.

"I've only figured out Professor Blaine's thought process in modifying this spell, but that doesn't mean I'm capable of using it. I don't have the magical control to properly control a powerful combination spell that's cleverly grafted together from two parts, even with increased magical input!"

Harry, Ron, and Neville looked at each other, suddenly feeling that their two years of magical studies had been a complete waste of time!

Hermione.

Seeing Hermione's anxiety, Harry hesitated before comforting her, "It's okay even if you can't use it. You've always been the best in your first and second years. So far, no one has been able to figure out Professor Blaine's 'Object Manipulation Charm'!"

"It's okay if you can't use it. What are you talking about, Harry!"

Hermione stared at Harry in astonishment, as if he had said something as shocking as if he didn't care about being expelled from school. "This is our homework!"

"But--"

Neville rubbed his chubby hands together, looking even more uneasy. "Professor Blaine's exact words were—you can try to study this spell, and if anyone succeeds, I'll give him an extra twenty points."

“Oh, Neville!” Hermione looked very unhappy. “We can’t be lazy just because Professor Blaine’s words have some flaws!”

"Ignore her, Neville. Our Miss Perfection has a grand dream of becoming a 'saint'!"

The Weasley brothers, who had just been selling dung balls in the crowd, walked over arm in arm, bringing along their good friend – Lee Jordan, a Quidditch commentator with a slightly hip-hop style.

Hermione immediately stormed off, clutching a large stack of reference books to her chest, grabbed her research findings, and headed back to the girls' dormitory without looking back.

"You shouldn't have angered her—"

Ron looked at his two older brothers and shrugged innocently. "You guys made it so that Harry and I have to do our Potions homework by ourselves—"

"Oh, sorry, are you alright?"

Hermione, running up the spiral staircase, was so fast that she accidentally bumped into someone and knocked them to the ground, while the books she was carrying also fell to the ground.

"No, it's okay!"

Ginny, whose face looked a little off, clutched her bulging pockets tightly. After getting up from the ground, she didn't care much about who had bumped into her and ran away quickly with her head down, leaving Hermione alone at the top of the stairs, watching Ginny's panicked back with a furrowed brow.

In the dimly lit dormitory, Parvati and Lavender sat on a bed, secretly grinning at Professor Lockhart's autographed photo. Soon, they started discussing who was more handsome, Professor Blaine or Professor Lockhart, and which second-year witches had already received love letters.

Hermione eavesdropped for a while, but found it increasingly boring.

The magic lamp by the bed cast Hermione's slender silhouette onto the wall opposite the bed. Hermione stared quietly at the shadow on the wall, recalling the Weasley brothers' joke and Ron's nonchalant attitude when he left. For some reason, she suddenly felt that the early spring night was colder than the dead of winter.

Hermione clutched the cup tightly, a thin mist clouding her beautiful brown eyes.

"The strong are always lonely."

Gazing at the dim starlight outside the window, this inexplicable remark stirred ripples in the lonely little witch's heart.

My daughter has a high fever again, it just won't end.

Chapter 50 Professor Lockhart's Little Secret

Because Professor Lockhart was lying in the university hospital receiving 'meticulous' care from Mrs. Pomfrey, none of the absurd and ridiculous things that happened on Valentine's Day, February 14th, occurred as depicted in the original story.

However, the school did make some efforts. The young wizards who went into the Great Hall for breakfast early in the morning were surprised to find that the professors had decorated the Great Hall with a circle of pale gold ribbons, colorful confetti was slowly falling from the light blue ceiling, and Cupid with white wings was standing at the castle gate, smiling and giving a bright red rose to everyone who came in and out.

When Harry and Ron casually handed the roses to Hermione, Hermione, who had been gloomy all night, finally smiled.

There was nothing much to say on this day. No topic could be more captivating than the innocent and pure love on Valentine's Day. Hermione didn't mention anything about studying, and even Wood, who was walking towards Harry from the courtyard, didn't mention anything about the competition or training plans after seeing Harry.

Most of the students in the third year and above went to Hogsmeade, while the flat lawn prepared for flying lessons was filled with first and second-year wizards.

The three of them, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, spent the morning playing wizard chess on the lawn, basking in the soft sunlight. After lunch, Harry and Ron decided to go to Hagrid's, while Hermione went to the school hospital alone with a handmade greeting card in her hand.

At 2 p.m., as previously agreed, Hermione hurriedly went to the third floor of the castle and knocked on the door of a professor's office.

"Please come in--"

The voice coming from behind the door sounded tired. Hermione didn't think much of it and pushed the door open to go inside.

In Professor Lockhart's office, the portraits and photographs that used to adorn the walls have been gathered up and piled up in the corner. Professor Blaine is sitting in Lockhart's seat, his face turned to the window, watching the owls that occasionally fly in and drop in letters, sighing deeply. In the middle of the office floor, there are probably one or two thousand such letters piled up!

"I never knew Professor Lockhart had so many fans!"

Amosta, behind his desk, looked like he had a toothache.

"If I had known earlier, I would have preferred to help Professor Snape clean up frog entrails and slug slime rather than agree to write his reply!"

"But aren't you a fan of Professor Lockhart, Professor Blaine? You should know about Professor Lockhart's influence!"

Hermione's eyes were still a little red from coming from the school hospital, but when she saw Professor Blaine sitting there with a melancholy look on his face, she couldn't help but quietly purse her lips.

"Let's not talk about that, Miss Granger!"

Amosta suddenly waved his wand, and thousands of letters lying on the floor formed a white tornado in mid-air. Then, they were neatly stacked back on the floor one by one. When the last letter found its place, a 'pillar of letters' appeared in the office, level with the ceiling!

“I don’t want to take advantage of you, Miss Granger. Let’s split it in half. Hopefully, we can make it for dinner tomorrow.”

Amosta, who had spent almost the entire night in the library's restricted section, rubbed his red and swollen eyes and yawned as he spoke.

And so began the most arduous task. Amosta and Hermione hunched over their desks, dealing with the 'letter pillars.' To be honest, replying to Lockhart's letters was one of the most tedious things Amosta had ever done in years. The letters were all the same: either nauseating compliments, requests for autographed photos, or demands for more updates.

In short, writing back to Professor Lockhart's fans was a very tedious task. Amosta rarely wrote more than ten words in each letter, but even so, he couldn't stand it after an hour.

Hermione, sitting opposite him, had a completely different attitude. She seemed to consider it a rare honor to write back for Professor Lockhart, so she carefully read the contents of each letter and wrote her reply thoughtfully.

Time flowed slowly, and two hours later, Hermione glanced back at the 'post of letters,' which had decreased by at most a third, rubbed her sore wrists, and looked at Professor Blaine. She found that he had not replied at all, but was leaning back in his chair, staring blankly at the ceiling with a bored expression.

“Professor Blaine, we promised Professor Lockhart we would help!”

Hermione pursed her lips just like Professor McGonagall, and she grumbled in dissatisfaction.

So, under Hermione's urging, the lifeless Amosta began dealing with the letters from readers again. This time, Miss Granger would look up every now and then to check if he was 'working' seriously, which left Amosta with no chance to slack off.

Amostella and Hermione ate dinner in the office. If they wanted to save time, Blaine could have simply ordered the house-elves to bring it over, but to get a little more rest, he decided to go to the Great Hall himself to retrieve the food.